With the advances in technology to deposit thin films of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and integrate them with conventional silicon technology, ferroelectric non-volatile memories are now well into their development phase. The memory element consists of a thin film ferroelectric capacitor, in which the non-volatile storage is based on the remanent polarization within the ferroelectric thin film. The established readout technique relies upon the transient displacement current induced by polarization reversal under an applied switching pulse.
However, the thin film ferroelectric capacitors as deposited have slow switching polarization components and undergo time-activated depolarization that cause instability in memory operation. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a process which improves the stability of the thin film ferroelectric capacitors.